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An artist on our team just made a $35,000 sale. I called and asked how it happened. "This person bought a tiny little thing from me seven years ago, and now they just came back and spent 35 grand." That's the business. This episode covers the math nobody taught you, and why it works whether your art is selling right now or not.
You're in this for life. People in their 80s and 90s still ask me how to get their art seen and sold. So stop judging your business on a three-month timeline and start playing the long game. The long game runs on math, not emotion.
In this episode:
- Why the desire to create, be seen, and sell never leaves an artist, and why that means you should stop making decisions on made-up timelines
- The three ways to grow an art business: new customers, repeat customers, and a higher average order value
- The one metric that matters most: new customers acquired per year, at any price
- Why a $5 sticker buyer is worth more than you think. It's far easier to get someone to buy a second time than a first.
- Collectors: Wyland's definition, and what having a collector list actually does for a new series
- The hardware store, the gift shop, and "Do you want fries with that?" What centuries of offline selling teach artists online
- Print on demand: how 7 to 10 pieces become a 2,000-item store with no inventory and no minimums
- The price ladder, from merch under $100 to prints, limited editions, and originals
- The math story: two artists with the same talent and the same marketing. One ends the year with 10 customers to email, the other with 125.
- Studying the business masters, not just the painting masters: Wyland and Gray Malin
- "I'm a fine artist, I don't sell merch." Fair enough. Then how are you going to win new customers?
- What merch is really for: new customers, a low-commitment way for fans to support you, and a spot on someone's coffee mug or phone case
- How a visible range of prices ends the pricing panic, plus a simple markup rule for print on demand
- "I'm already doing all of this and I'm still not selling." What a Picasso quote really means.
- Tens of thousands of works were still in Picasso's possession when he died. You will have unsold work too. It's part of the process.
- The loop: make the work, put it in front of strangers, try to sell it, and either way you learn something and make more
Quotes from this episode:
- "In the beginning, I did not sell at a high price, but I sold. My drawings, my canvases went. That's what counts." (Pablo Picasso, from Brassaï's Conversations with Picasso)
- "Don't price them too high. What matters is that you sell a large number of them. Your drawings must go out into the world." (Pablo Picasso to Brassaï, from Conversations with Picasso)
- A collector is someone who buys seven or more pieces of your art over a lifetime. (Wyland)
- "The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The next best time is today." (Proverb)
- "There is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
- "Do you want fries with that?" (McDonald's)
- "This person bought this tiny little thing from me seven years ago, and now they just came back and spent 35 grand." (An Art Storefronts artist)
- "Tell me the last time you went to a museum that didn't have a gift shop. I'll wait." (Patrick)
- "Your own mother doesn't look at your art 142 times a day." (Patrick)
Books mentioned:
Three takeaways: own your website and your domain. Get print on demand going so you have the range. Market regularly, because the work has to go out into the world.
This week's homework: open the Customer Calculator and put in your real numbers. How many new customers did you win last year? Then add one rung to your ladder below $100.
Related episodes:
Comment on Spotify or YouTube: what's the cheapest thing in your store, and how many new customers did you win last year? I'll answer every one.
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